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Brooklynian hyper-rhoticity

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Ben Zimmer

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Feb 23, 2005, 8:13:53 PM2/23/05
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Our esteemed colleague Areff has noted on several occasions that some
New Yorkers of a non-rhotic background have a tendency to compensate by
"hyper-rhoticizing" their speech. Quoting from a Nov. 2003 post:

-----
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/msg/8b92781da45e42d7
There's a generational, social-class and possibly ethnic subset of New
York city natives, generally Baby Boomers or Wartime-born, generally
with lower-middle-class childhood backgrounds and significant
higher-educational accomplishments, who speak in an accent I call
"faux-rhotic". It sounds like they grew up as ordinary non-rhotic trad
New York accent speakers but at some very late point rhoticized their
accents. The result is not pretty; this accent features an "r" that's
harsher even than the natural "r" of, say, many Californian accents.
A good public example of the accent I have in mind is Senator Chuck
Schumer of New York, who grew up in my home town of Flatbush (The Heart
of Brooklyn).
-----

Today I heard an extreme example of this phenomenon. On the public
radio station WNYC, Brian Lehrer interviewed Norman Siegel, founder of
the advocacy group "Develop - Don't Destroy Brooklyn" and a candidate
for Public Advocate. Here's the link for the show, with audio:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/02232005

Siegel has unassailable Brooklyn credentials -- he's a graduate of New
Utrecht High School and Brooklyn College. And his hyper-rhoticity goes
far beyond Chuck Schumerrr. He rather startlingly rhoticizes words
ending in /@/ (schwa) like "America", "arena", "Columbia", and "Scalia".

This isn't just the "intrusive r" phenomenon of non-rhotic speakers like
John F. Kennedy's "Cuba[r]". First, JFK never tried to pass as rhotic,
while Siegel is rhotic throughout (though there are glimpses of his
non-rhotic background in places, particularly in his pronunciation of
"neighborhood"). And second, JFK added the "intrusive r" only before
vowels, as I noted in this post <http://tinyurl.com/4u49k>. Siegel adds
it before pauses and consonants as well -- even within a word in the
case of "arena[r]s".

It really has to be heard to be believed, but here is a transcription of
the hyper-rhotic moments with the approximate times that they appear in
the audio file:

-----
3:15: It does not mean in my opinion a private sports arena[r] [pause]
or the expansion of a private university.
4:15: And I think if you take a look at what's been happening let's say
in the last decade across America[r] [pause] you've had thousands of
takings of private property by the government...
15:50: I was rooting for Scalia[r] as he was questioning Mr. Horton.
16:45: And then a private entity, whether it's Columbia[r] in its
expansion plan, or Forest City Ratner in wanting to have a private
basketball team in a private arena[r] [pause] with, uh, government
assistance...
17:35: When Columbia[r] says that we don't have the power to exercise
eminent domain, it's only the power that can be exercised by the
government, my question to Columbia[r] [pause] are you telling me
that...
18:10: And when you have a Columbia[r] wanting to expand...
24:10: When you take a look at the proposal for the Jets stadium in, uh,
the West Side or the private Nets arena[r] in Brooklyn, uh, there's a
book called Field of Schemes and it analyzes a twenty-year history in
America[r] in Cleveland, in Baltimore...
25:55: The point that I was making with regard to stadiums and arena[r]s
which has been well-documented, that the proponents of stadiums and
arena[r]s that always want public funding...
-----

Areff

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Feb 23, 2005, 8:52:30 PM2/23/05
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Ben Zimmer wrote:
> Our esteemed colleague Areff has noted on several occasions that some
> New Yorkers of a non-rhotic background have a tendency to compensate by
> "hyper-rhoticizing" their speech.

BTW, this should be distinguished from the Midwestern/Far Western accents
I have called "hyper-rhotic", typified by Richard M. Nixon as well as the
guy who used to be on the Apex Tech commercials. (Not to mention the
C.T.A. morning bus coordinator guy at Belmont and Lake Shore Drive.)

[...]


> Today I heard an extreme example of this phenomenon. On the public
> radio station WNYC, Brian Lehrer interviewed Norman Siegel, founder of
> the advocacy group "Develop - Don't Destroy Brooklyn" and a candidate
> for Public Advocate. Here's the link for the show, with audio:
>
> http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/02232005
>
> Siegel has unassailable Brooklyn credentials -- he's a graduate of New
> Utrecht High School and Brooklyn College. And his hyper-rhoticity goes
> far beyond Chuck Schumerrr. He rather startlingly rhoticizes words
> ending in /@/ (schwa) like "America", "arena", "Columbia", and "Scalia".
>
> This isn't just the "intrusive r" phenomenon of non-rhotic speakers like
> John F. Kennedy's "Cuba[r]". First, JFK never tried to pass as rhotic,
> while Siegel is rhotic throughout (though there are glimpses of his
> non-rhotic background in places, particularly in his pronunciation of
> "neighborhood"). And second, JFK added the "intrusive r" only before
> vowels, as I noted in this post <http://tinyurl.com/4u49k>. Siegel adds
> it before pauses and consonants as well -- even within a word in the
> case of "arena[r]s".

I noticed my father (basically non-rhotic in the post-1929 New York sense
[i.e., stressed /R/ is rhoticized]) and my mother (usually rhotic, but
with lots of subtle non-rhoticisms -- though note that she lived near
Boston till age 5 or so) using the un-called-for intrusive r at odd times,
aside from the Kennedy scenarios -- though I think there was some method
to it. I think a word in /@/ at the end of a sentence (or end of an
incomplete sentence would get rhoticized. But this isn't really like
what Siegel does.

Siegel certainly has a lot of striking overcompensatory rhoticizations,
but his accent isn't really the best example of what I think of as the
faux-rhotic accent, though I see some connections. His pronunciation of
"New York" is tell-tale -- the faux rhotics sound like they're saying "New
Yurrrk" . As I think you noted, Siegel actually had a fair amount of mild
non-rhoticism here and there in his speech. But, yes, I do hear quite a
bit of "punch" in some of his r's.


--
Steny '08!

Joe Fineman

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Feb 24, 2005, 10:38:05 AM2/24/05
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I seem to recall that Vermonters in my childhood (1940s) said "idear"
even when no vowel followed. I don't know if they did that to other
words in which a final schwa was preceded immediately by a stressed
vowel; such words are fairly scarce (Leah? gonorrhea? Noah?), but
maybe. Margaret MacArthur sings a song ("In Sugaring Time") in which
a Vermonter (transplanted to Boston) does it to "Josiah".
--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net

||: Whatever is not worth doing is worth doing well. :||

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